American Legion kept out of victory room

Wednesday

Jun 27, 2007 at 12:01 AMJun 27, 2007 at 10:55 PM

They keep knocking at the door, but the Holbrook American Legion Baseball team is being denied access to the victory room. Coach Bill Merrigan feels that his team has improved, but Post 139 has run into some frustrating losses during the season.

Mark Ducharme

They keep knocking at the door, but the Holbrook American Legion Baseball team is being denied access to the victory room.

Coach Bill Merrigan feels that his team has improved, but Post 139 has run into some frustrating losses during the season.

Post 139 has run into some tough breaks in the season’s first half.

Holbrook had a stretch of three one-run losses, including a 9-8 loss to the defending State and Northeast Champions Milton in a contest where Holbrook led for most of the game.

However, Holbrook’s fourth one-run loss of the season might be the most hard to swallow.

Post 139, after having its originally scheduled game rained out with Morrissette, appeared that it would be on its way to its first win.

Holbrook rallied from a 3-0 deficit and took a 6-3 lead going into the seventh inning, but Morrissette rallied with a four-run seventh and held off a furious Post 139 rally for a 7-6 win.

“If we go 0-20 for the season, I would be proud of the way we played in this Morrissette game,” Merrigan said. “We played our hearts out. We will bounce back and go from here.”

Post 139 has a tough game on Sunday evening against Quincy and will host Milton on Monday and play West Roxbury at Catholic Memorial on Tuesday.

Joe Monti pitched a gem against Morrissette. The righthander used his curve ball to get ahead as he gave up three earned runs in six innings. He picked a runner off first in the opening inning.

In the seventh, Morrissette loaded the bases with no outs and got a seeing-eye two-run ground ball single and a two-run double to take a 7-6 lead.

Holbrook appeared that it was going to respond in the bottom of the seventh and rally for its first win.

Junior Viega had a lead off double, Chris Viega walked, Kevin O'Connor laid down a sacrifice bunt, and John Micciche was hit by a pitch to load the bases with one out.

However, a controversial strike out and a ground out ended the Holbrook threat and denied the players of their first win of the season.

“Joe Monti pitched six great innings,” Merrigan said. “We were making the plays in the infield. We got some big hits from John Micciche and Jamie Rudin. Our bottom part of the order had a good game for us.”

Morrissette jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the third inning with three unearned runs, but Holbrook fought its way back.

Brian Merrigan’s ground out scored O’Connor, and a Chris Doherty RBI single sparked a two-run third inning for Post 137.

Micciche gave Holbrook the lead in the fourth inning as his RBI double was misplayed, and he scored as well on the hit to give Holbrook a 4-3 lead.

Rudin’s two-run triple in the sixth inning that scored Merrigan and Doherty appeared to give Holbrook a comfortable 6-3 advantage, but Morrissette rallied for the win.

Post 139 got a break in its game with Morrissette at Adams Field in Quincy.

Holbrook, which was the home team in the game, had a 2-0 lead, but errors and a controversial catcher’s interference call turned the lead into a 5-2 deficit.

However, a thunderstorm came in the top of the fifth inning, and the game, which was not official, was cancelled and replayed in its entirety.

Mike Woodford had pitched a strong game before the rain came and gave up one earned run

Holbrook started the game with four straight singles by Merrigan, Richie Ring, McSweeney, and Rudin and a sacrifice fly by Colin Gray.

Post 139 appeared to be on its way to a win against Cohasset.

However, two out errors by Holbrook led to a big six-run sixth inning for Cohasset, which held on for a 7-4 win.

“We led for most of the game,” Merrigan said. “We attempted to juggle our infield around and see what happens.”

Brian Merrigan had two hits to lead the Holbrook offense, and Post 139 catcher John McSweeney scored three runs and drove in one.

Holbrook scored three runs in the top of the sixth inning.

Jamie Rudin’s single that was misplayed was the key play of the inning as it scored two runs.

Randy Weiner pitched a strong game for Holbrook, but was hurt by the errors.

Post 139 had a tough time with Stoughton as walks hurt in the first two innings in their 9-1 loss.

Stoughton built a 6-0 lead after two innings and held on for the win.

Weiner pitched three and a third innings of strong relief for Post 137, which scored their run in the sixth inning.

Junior Viega doubled in Jamie Rudin with the lone Holbrook run.

“They hit the ball and we didn’t,” Merrigan said. “They also made three very good plays in the outfield.”